Pope Benedict XVIhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/pope-benedict-xvi
en-usTue, 31 Mar 2015 18:39:34 -0400Tue, 31 Mar 2015 18:39:34 -0400The latest news on Pope Benedict XVI from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/carlo-maria-martini-the-radicals-pope-2013-3The Vatican Considered A Radically Different Pope In 2005http://www.businessinsider.com/carlo-maria-martini-the-radicals-pope-2013-3
Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:06:00 -0400Adam Taylor
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/513e1971ecad049a69000008-400-/carlo-maria-martini-and-pope-benedict-xvi.jpg" border="0" alt="Carlo Maria Martini And Pope Benedict XVI" width="400" /></p><p>Back in 2005, as the papal conclave met in the Vatican, most people knew what to expect from the outcome &mdash; Joseph Ratzinger, a trusted ally of Pope John Paul II, would soon become Pope Benedict XVI.</p>
<p>However, it's easy to forget that there was another, much more radical contender.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/14/pope.successor/">At one point,</a> Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former archbishop of Milan, would garner about as many votes as Ratzinger in the first round. <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170278,00.html">After the conclave, the Associated Press</a> reported that he was the "main challenger" to Ratzinger.</p>
<p>Martini &ndash; who had been suffering from the early stages of&nbsp;Parkinson&rsquo;s disease &mdash; had <a href="http://www.dw.de/opposition-mounting-to-ratzinger-as-pope/a-1552530-1">indicated he didn't want the job</a>, and in the end he is believed to have instructed <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02E7DE1731F932A15757C0A9639C8B63&amp;pagewanted=2">his supporters to vote for Ratzinger</a>.</p>
<p>However, many supporters had hoped that he would finally become Pope and lead a new, progressive Church.</p>
<p>Even today, some of Martini's positions look positively radical for a church so rooted in tradition.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.americancatholic.org/features/johnpaulii/transition/CardinalsMartini.asp">According to a 2005 article</a> from the Catholic News Service, Martini "made news with his openness to the possibility of allowing married Latin-rite priests under certain circumstances, ordaining women as deacons and allowing Communion for some divorced Catholics in subsequent marriages not approved by the church."</p>
<p>Once it was clear he would not be Pope, Martini's views became even more progressive. In <a href="http://queeringthechurch.com/2012/03/29/cardinal-martini-on-gay-partnerships/">a book published shortly before his death in 2012</a>, Martini wrote, &ldquo;I disagree with the positions of those in the Church, that take issue with civil unions&rdquo;, though he stopped short of supporting gay marriage. &ldquo;It is not bad, instead of casual sex between men, that two people have a certain stability," he wrote.<span style="color: #000000; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19.1875px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #ffffff; display: inline !important; float: none;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p>
<p>Perhaps the most controversial statement from Martini came after his death. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/cardinal-carlo-maria-martini-his-final-interview-and-a-damning-critique-that-has-rocked-the--catholic-church-8101498.html">In an interview published</a> just hours after Martini died in Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Martini said that the Catholic Church was "200 years out of date".</p>
<p>"Our culture has aged, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our rituals and our cassocks are pompous," he wrote. "The Church must admit its mistakes and begin a radical change, starting from the Pope and the bishops. The pedophilia scandals oblige us to take a journey of transformation."</p>
<p>Of course, even if Martini had been selected as Pope, his power would have had its limits, and his death in 2012 suggests that he might not have been Pope for too long. Regardless, considering the current rift between the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-vatican-is-trying-to-subdue-a-growing-feud-between-cardinals-2013-3">reformers and the Vatican-based conservatives</a>, it's understandable why the reformers may feel like their time has come.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/carlo-maria-martini-the-radicals-pope-2013-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-celebrates-pope-benedict-xvi-with-e-book-written-in-comic-sans-2013-3Vatican Celebrates Pope Benedict XVI With E-Book Written In Comic Sanshttp://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-celebrates-pope-benedict-xvi-with-e-book-written-in-comic-sans-2013-3
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:53:00 -0500Jim Edwards
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5137572cecad047f08000011-350-/screen%20shot%202013-03-06%20at%209.34.43%20am.png" border="0" alt="Pope comic sans" width="350" /></p><p>It's an inspirational picture: Pope Benedict XVI, dressed in white and carrying a large gold cross, reaches down to bless a tiny baby, carried by a young mom, in front of an epic religious fresco.</p>
<p>The photo &mdash; which appears in a <a href="http://www.vatican.va/bxvi/omaggio/index_en.html">62-page e-book published by the Vatican</a> to commemorate the career of Benedict upon his retirement &mdash; is spoiled, however, by the caption underneath it (click to enlarge). It's written in Comic Sans, the balloon-y, cartoon-y typeface that's regarded as a design <em>faux pas</em> by art directors and other creative professionals.</p>
<p>The caption reads, "<span>Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction."</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #222222; line-height: 1.5em;">But because the entire book is written in Comic Sans, the sentence feels sarcastic and jokey.</span></p>
<p>As its name suggests, Comic Sans attempts to replicate the look of words inside the speech bubbles that appear in comics. As such, anything written in Comic Sans instantly appears trivial.</p>
<p>Such is the hatred of Comic Sans among art directors that the typeface has taken on an ironic hipster symbolism.</p>
<ul>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There's a web site devoted to </span><a href="http://bancomicsans.com/main/">banning its use</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There's a web site devoted to explaining to design newbies </span><a href="http://www.comicsanscriminal.com/">why Comic Sans should never be used</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> under any circumstances.</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It has a </span><a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/comic-sans">Know Your Meme page</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11582548">BBC even investigated it</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> back in 2010.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="line-height: 22.5px;">Not that the Vatican has any reason to be concerned about any of this, however.<br /></span></p>
<div><span style="line-height: 22.5px;"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5137577d6bb3f72e7800001d-790-620/screen%20shot%202013-03-06%20at%209.33.28%20am.png" border="0" alt="Pope comic sans" width="590" /><br /></span></div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-celebrates-pope-benedict-xvi-with-e-book-written-in-comic-sans-2013-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/benedict-resignation-next-pope-cardinal-electorate-2013-2It's Benedict's Last Day As Pope: Here's What The Electorate Looks Like For The Next Onehttp://www.businessinsider.com/benedict-resignation-next-pope-cardinal-electorate-2013-2
Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:04:38 -0500Walter Hickey
<p>Today is Benedict XVI's last day in the papacy, and the world is eager to learn who will be the next top Catholic.&nbsp;</p>
<p>While many betting sites are looking at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-black-pope-2013-2">the most buzzed candidates</a>, it's crucial to remember that the people who actually pick the next pope <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-next-pope-will-be-selected-2013-2">are an exclusive group of 116 electors.</a>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Papal conclaves are notoriously hard to predict,&nbsp; but oftentimes factions are broken along regional lines. The concerns of Cardinals from the developing world are quite different from those of Europe or the Americas, and historically Cardinals vote for the new pope based on such concerns, a <a href="http://ojs.uccs.edu/index.php/urj/article/view/2">study from Adam Brickley found</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So from the most basic level of analysis, it's important to know what the electoral base is made up of. Here's the regional breakdown of Cardinals eligible to vote:</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/512f6c83eab8ea3d52000025-575-431/factions-of-electors.png" border="0" alt="factions of electors" /></p>
<p>You'll notice that the Cardinals are overwhelmingly European &mdash; more than half hail from Catholicism's home region &mdash; and the Europeans are overwhelmingly Italian.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A pope needs a two-thirds plus one majority &mdash; 78 votes in this case &mdash; to win. A Cardinal who sweeps the rest of the world will still need 23 Europeans to back him, making the Old World bloc a crucial one.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This isn't to say that the pope is guaranteed to be from Europe, just that most of the people who elect him probably will be.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/benedict-resignation-next-pope-cardinal-electorate-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-replace-pope-benedict-voting-catholic-conclave-2013-2Now That Pope Benedict Has Said His Farewell, Meet The Men Who Could Be The Next Popehttp://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-replace-pope-benedict-voting-catholic-conclave-2013-2
Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:46:00 -0500Michael Brendan Dougherty and Paul Szoldra
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/511d39036bb3f7ab1300000d-400-300/franco-origlia-getty-142528977.jpg" border="0" alt="Pope waving to crowd" width="400" height="300" />Pope Benedict leaves the Vatican <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/europe/pope-benedict-XVI-final-general-audience.html?_r=0" target="_blank">behind in resignation</a> on Thursday, but his farewell speech gave no hints of who might succeed him, although he did warn that privacy will not come with the job.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">&ldquo;He who assumes the ministry of Peter no longer has any privacy,&rdquo; he said to over 150,000 onlookers gathered in St. Peter's Square,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/world/europe/pope-benedict-XVI-final-general-audience.html?_r=0" target="_blank">according to The New York Times.</a> &ldquo;He belongs forever and totally to all people, to all the church. The private dimension is totally, so to speak, removed from his life.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p>His announcement of resignation on Feb. 11 came as quite a shock to the faithful, with only three Popes ever resigning &mdash; all under extraordinary circumstances, and never for health concerns.&nbsp;<span>In 1045, Pope Benedict IX was pressured to resign but was eventually re-installed on the Papal throne because his resignation appeared to be &ldquo;selling&rdquo; his office. Pope Celestine V, a reclusive monk, resigned in 1294. He had months earlier declared it permissible for a Pope to resign, establishing the tiny legal precedent that Benedict appears to be exercising now. Finally, Pope Gregory XII abdicated the papal throne in 1415 to end the great Western Schism.</span></p>
<p><span>But in churches and beyond, now the million-dollar question is: Who will be the next leader of the Catholic Church?</span></p>
<p><span>Whoever is chosen by the College of Cardinals at the forthcoming conclave will have the delicate task of governing the Church while his predecessor still lives. </span></p>
<p>There are plenty of contenders for the top spot, so we've worked up their potential odds using online prediction markets&nbsp;<a href="http://www.paddypower.com" target="_blank">Paddy Power</a> and <a href="http://www.intrade.com" target="_blank">InTrade</a>, and assessed the pros and cons of each.</p><h3>Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4f904d5decad04b341000025-400-300/cardinal-peter-kodwo-appiah-turkson.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><strong>Country:</strong>&nbsp;Ghana</p>
<p><strong>Position:</strong>&nbsp;President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace</p>
<p><strong>Age:</strong>&nbsp;<span>64</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Likelihood: </strong><span>InTrade gives him 22.5% likelihood.&nbsp;</span>High odds according to Paddy Power: 3/1. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>What His Election Would Mean:</strong>&nbsp;That the Cardinals recognize the future isn't in Benedict's Europe but in the explosive growth of the Church in the "global South"</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He'll Get Elected:</strong>&nbsp;He is a superstar in the College of Cardinals, a great communicator, and symbol of the global reach of the Church.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He Might Not Get Elected:</strong>&nbsp;The Catholic Church in Africa can be very disconnected from the Church that the majority of the European Cardinals live in. In Africa the top issues aren't sexual politics and theological disputes, they are exorcism, animism, the growth of Islam, and condemnation of Western economic policy.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Cardinal Angelo Scola</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4f904d806bb3f73c1700003e-400-300/cardinal-angelo-scola.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><strong>Country:</strong>&nbsp;Italy</p>
<p><strong>Position:</strong>&nbsp;Archbishop of Milan</p>
<p><strong>Age:</strong>&nbsp;<span>71</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Likelihood:</strong> <span>InTrade gives him good odds at 22.5%.&nbsp;</span>Paddy Power also ranks him a very strong 3/1.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>What His Election Would Mean:</strong>&nbsp;A Church focused on re-Christianizing Europe.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He'll Get Elected: </strong> A strong Italian bloc of voters, and his relative ease with them. His theological background is in the family issues that the Church in Europe increasingly feels must be addressed.</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He Might Not Get Elected:&nbsp;</strong>The Cardinals no longer believe the Church is truly a European institution.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Cardinal Marc Ouellet</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4f902ebeecad04540f000020-400-300/cardinal-marc-ouellet.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><strong>Country:</strong>&nbsp;Canada</p>
<p><strong>Position:</strong>&nbsp;Prefect of the&nbsp;Congregation for Bishops, formerly Archbishop of Quebec.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Age:</strong>&nbsp;<span>68</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Likelihood: </strong>InTrade currently has him at 20%, and&nbsp;Paddy Power ranks him 7/1.<br /></span></p>
<p><strong>What His Election Would Mean:</strong>&nbsp;It's a global Church now. His work in helping to vet and select bishops would give him the ability as pope to dramatically shape the Church for a generation or more.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He'll Get Elected:</strong>&nbsp;Most qualified. He speaks English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and German fluently. He has done missionary work in South America.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He Might Not Get Elected:</strong>&nbsp;He might decline. (You can decline your election) &nbsp;He has given every indication that papacy is a "crushing responsibility" that he would hesitate to take. Then again, that is exactly what makes him an attractive candidate.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-replace-pope-benedict-voting-catholic-conclave-2013-2#cardinal-tarsicio-bertone-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-vatican-report-on-gay-sex-2013-2Did A Secret Vatican Report On Gay Sex And Blackmail Bring Down The Pope?http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-vatican-report-on-gay-sex-2013-2
Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:51:00 -0500Alexander Abad-Santos
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/511aeabe6bb3f7bb43000004-400-300/pope-4.jpg" border="0" alt="pope benedict" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>Pope Benedict XVI has claimed that he's resigning the papacy next week because of old age.</p>
<p>But&nbsp;<a href="http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2013/02/21/news/ricatti_vaticano-53080655/?ref=HREC1-4">according to the major Italian newspaper&nbsp;La Repubblica</a>,&nbsp;the real reason he resigned is because he did not want to deal with the repercussions of a secret 300-page Vatican dossier that allegedly found, among other things, an underground network of high-ranking gay clergy, complete with sex parties and shady dealings with the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/02/vaticans-new-chief-banker-has-financial-ties-war/62204/">already scandal-ridden</a>&nbsp;Vatican bank.</p>
<p>Here's what we know:</p>
<p><strong>The report sounds menacing.</strong>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2013/02/21/news/ricatti_vaticano-53080655/?ref=HREC1-4">According to&nbsp;</a><a href="http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2013/02/21/news/ricatti_vaticano-53080655/?ref=HREC1-4">La Repubblica</a>, the dossier comes in two volumes, "two folders hard-bound in red" with the header "pontifical secret."</p>
<p><strong>Pope Benedict asked for the investigation.</strong>&nbsp;"The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign &mdash; the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called 'Vatileaks' affair,"&nbsp;<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/21/pope-retired-amid-gay-bishop-blackmail-inquiry">according to the&nbsp;The Guardian's translation of the report</a>.</p>
<p><strong>The Vatican has a Velvet Mafia &mdash; and the Velvet Mafia is being blackmailed.</strong>&nbsp;The dossier alleges that a gay lobby exists within the Church, and has some sort of control on the careers of those in the Vatican. The dossier also alleges that this group isn't as covert as it thinks &mdash; and got blackmailed by people on the outside.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"The cardinals were said to have uncovered an underground gay network, whose members organise sexual meetings in several venues in Rome and Vatican City, leaving them prone to blackmail,"&nbsp;<a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/vatican-scandal-cited-in-pope-resignation-20130222-2ev0d.html">reads&nbsp;The Sydney Morning Herald's translation of the report</a>, and&nbsp;The Guardian&nbsp;adds: "They included a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop." Some important context on this still powerful group:</p>
<ul>
<li>This isn't the first time there's been talk of a gay faction inside the highest ranks of the Church. Indeed, it isn't even the first time that&nbsp;La Repubblica&nbsp;has written about it. Back in 2010, Ghinedu Ehiem, a Nigerian clergyman who was part of one of the Vatican's prestigious choirs,&nbsp;was dismissed after police wiretaps found him negotiating for male prostitutes.&nbsp;La Repubblica<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/7372082/Vatican-chorister-and-usher-in-gay-prostitution-scandal.html">had those wiretaps</a>.</li>
<li>And "in 2007 a senior official was suspended from the congregation, or department, for the priesthood, after he was filmed in a 'sting' organised by an Italian television programme while apparently making sexual overtures to a younger man," according to&nbsp;The Guardian &mdash;&nbsp;evidence the paper says connects&nbsp;to a gay network within the Holy See.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>La Repubblica's sourcing seems to have been corroborated.</strong>&nbsp;So how much of this new scandal should you believe? Well,&nbsp;La Repubblica&nbsp;is not&nbsp;the only publication with an outline of this scandalous dossier.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Panorama, an Italian weekly, has&nbsp;<a href="http://news.panorama.it/cronaca/conclave-vaticano-dossier-papa">a similar report</a>&nbsp;out late this week and&nbsp;<a href="http://news.panorama.it/cronaca/conclave-vaticano-dossier-papa">according to the AFP</a>,&nbsp;both publications have sources (perhaps the same source) who said the same thing: that the investigation shows transgressions that "revolve around the sixth and seventh commandments" &mdash; "Thou shall not commit adultery" and "Thou shall not steal." It's assumed in multiple reports that homosexual sex acts fall under the "adultery" umbrella.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>The Vatican's bank sounds fishy.&nbsp;</strong>La Repubblica&nbsp;says that the seventh commandment ("Though shall not steal") has to do with the Institute of Religious Works, the Vatican's Bank.</p>
<p>"The three cardinals continued to work beyond 17 December last year. They came up with the latest events concerning the IOR &mdash; here you go to the seventh commandment," reads the report, according to a rough <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google">Google</a> Translation. On February 15, Pope Benedict&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/02/vaticans-new-chief-banker-has-financial-ties-war/62204/">appointed</a>&nbsp;Ernst von Freyberg, a German lawyer, to head the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/02/pope-benedicts-last-intriguing-piece-business/62200/">scandalous</a>&nbsp;bank.</p>
<p><strong>The Vatican's response isn't exactly comforting.</strong>&nbsp;The Church isn't flat-out denying the inflammatory allegations from&nbsp;La Repubblica, and they've pulled the classic act of neither confirming nor denying. Vatican spokesman Father Ferederico Lombardi&nbsp;<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/21/pope-retired-amid-gay-bishop-blackmail-inquiry">said in a statement</a>:&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Neither the cardinals' commission nor I will make comments to confirm or deny the things that are said about this matter. Let each one assume his or her own responsibilities. We shall not be following up on the observations that are made about this.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Pope Benedict's successor will have a rough first day.</strong>&nbsp;If this damning dossier was really a big enough deal to have forced the first papal resignation in 600 years, who gets to deal with it?</p>
<p>That undertaking will go to Benedict's successor. According to&nbsp;La Repubblica, the dossier will stay in a secret papal safe and delivered to Benedict's successor whenever he is elected &mdash; and that isn't all,&nbsp;La Repubblica said this gay blackmail thing is just the first in a series of articles by the paper.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/abuse-victims-react-to-popes-retirement-2013-2" >Why Sex Abuse Victims Won't Miss This Pope</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-vatican-report-on-gay-sex-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedict-xvi-can-fly-a-helicopter-2013-2The Pope Can Spend Retirement Flying His Helicopterhttp://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedict-xvi-can-fly-a-helicopter-2013-2
Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:34:00 -0500Alex Davies
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5127aa1069bedd6d54000000-402-301/pope-bnedict-xvi-in-italian-army-helicopter-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Pope Bnedict XVI in Italian army helicopter" width="402" height="301" /></p><p>The unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has raised a lot of questions about his motivations and the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedict-was-no-match-for-vatileaks-2013-2">future of the Catholic Church</a>.</p>
<p>One of the less pressing concerns is what he will do with his remaining years. As it turns out, he could spend his time flying a helicopter.</p>
<p>According to a list of "interesting facts" compiled by the <a href="http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/benedict-xvi/did-you-know/interesting-facts-about-his-holy-father-pope-benedict-xvi/">Catholic News Agency</a> (<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/02/pope-will-fly-a-helicopter-into-the-sunset.html?mid=twitter_dailyintel">via New York Magazine</a>), the Pope has a pilot's license for the papal helicopter, and enjoys flying between Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence, and the Vatican.</p>
<p>We're not sure if he'll still have access to that chopper, but someone would probably be happy to give him his own.</p>
<p>In any case, he'll need a ride to the helicopter pad: The Holy Father does not have a driver's license.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-next-pope-is-selected-2013-2" >How The Next Pope Will Be Plucked From Relative Obscurity</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedict-xvi-can-fly-a-helicopter-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedicts-controvrsial-last-action-2013-2One Of Pope Benedict's Last Appointments Is Already Causing Controversyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedicts-controvrsial-last-action-2013-2
Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:21:00 -0500Adam Taylor
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/511e87feeab8ea8a31000039-400-/pope-benedict-3.jpg" border="0" alt="pope benedict" width="400" /></p><p>Before his surprise resignation this week, Pope Benedict XVI may have lead the Church into one more scandal.</p>
<p>Benedict is reported to have personally signed off on the Vatican Bank's new president, German financier Ernst von Freyberg &mdash; new blood meant to head off recent financial scandals.</p>
<p>A Church spokesperson was caught off-guard during the announcement of the new appointment today, however, when a reporter pointed out that von Freyberg chairs Blohm + Voss, a German firm that <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/pope-oks-german-lawyer-head-embattled-vatican-bank-1-last-major-appointments">has supplied ships for the German military</a>, reports the AP. The Vatican Bank traditionally avoids any link military manufacturing, so von Freyberg's links to Blohm + Voss appeared to be a conflict of interest.</p>
<p><a href="http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/new-bank-head-has-nothing-do-arms-trade-vatican-says">The Church has attempted to sidestep</a> the controversy, telling reporters that von Freyberg chairs a civilian branch of <span>Blohm + Voss</span> &mdash; but it's hard to understand how the Church could have been unprepared for the harsh questioning of the hire.</p>
<p>Benedict's time as Pope has been marred with the scandals that besieged the Vatican Bank in the last few years, as a series of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedict-and-vatileaks-2013-2">internal documents were leaked, earning the nickname "VatiLeaks"</a>.</p>
<p>The documents, allegedly revealed by the Pope's faithful butler, revealed all sorts of conflict within the Vatican Bank, with allegations of cronyism and corruption going unpunished.</p>
<p>The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report wrote last year that the the Vatican city <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-government-just-put-the-vatican-on-a-list-of-places-where-its-easy-to-launder-money-2012-3">was an area "of concern" when it comes to money laundering</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-shuts-down-the-vatican-banks-account-due-to-lack-of-transparency-2012-3">the Milan branch of JPMorgan Chase closed the Vatican bank account at the end of March 2012</a>, citing a lack of transparency.</p>
<p>Today's embarrassment is just one more thing to mar the reputation of the Vatican bank.</p>
<h3><strong>Watch Below:</strong> How The Pope Is Picked<br /><br /></h3>
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Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:35:00 -0500Walter Hickey and Daniel Goodman
<p>Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church must select his replacement, and the election will be closely watched.</p>
<p>The procedures are archaic and complicated, but the process is momentous. A small group of men will gather in complete secrecy to select a man who will be rocketed from complete obscurity to global influence and primacy among one billion Catholics.<br /><br /></p>
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<p><em>Produced by Daniel Goodman</em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/state-of-the-union-analysis-2013-2" >Barack Obama's Ambitious Plan For His Second Term</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-it-takes-to-join-marines-video-2013-2" >Here Is What It Takes To Join The US Marines</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-next-pope-is-selected-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-colbert-report-chris-matthews-msnbc-pope-video-2013-2Stephen Colbert Hilariously Mocks MSNBC's Chris Matthews Over Pope Hysteriahttp://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-colbert-report-chris-matthews-msnbc-pope-video-2013-2
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:11:00 -0500Grace Wyler
<p><a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/stephen-colbert">Stephen Colbert</a> had a&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">little bit of fun with the media madness over Pope Benedict XVI's surprise resignation Monday, mocking the cable punditry's furious speculation about who will be the next pope.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Running through a series of clips of talking heads asking "Who will be the next Pope?" Colbert ended with <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/msnbc">MSNBC</a> host Chris Matthews.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"I love doing this by the way," Matthews says excitedly. "It's a horse race!"&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"Yes, it's a horse race Chris, thank you," Colbert mocked. "The heir of St. Peter, the vicar of Christ, the rock on whom Jesus built his Church. Yeah, basically the same as the Iowa Straw Polls."&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Watch the <a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/">segment</a> below:&nbsp;</span></p>
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</div><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-colbert-report-chris-matthews-msnbc-pope-video-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/buy-italian-bonds-on-the-popes-resignation-2013-2We Finally Found Someone With A Theory Of How The Pope's Resignation Could Influence The Markethttp://www.businessinsider.com/buy-italian-bonds-on-the-popes-resignation-2013-2
Tue, 12 Feb 2013 07:24:03 -0500Joe Weisenthal
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5118d579ecad04d863000021-400-/screen%20shot%202013-02-11%20at%206.25.12%20am.png" border="0" alt="Pope Benedict" width="400" /></p><p>We were wondering if anyone was going to try to make a market call on the news that Pope Benedict is resigning/retiring/abdicating.</p>
<p>And yes! We found one.</p>
<p>Bill Blaine, who writes a daily Blain's Morning Porridge note for <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/mint">Mint</a> Partners, argues that the Pope's departure is bullish for Italian bonds, and Italy in general.</p>
<p>The argument is kind of twisted -- and as he admits Dan Brownish -- but it basically goes, that the Vatican still has a lot of power in Italy, and if there's any chaos in Italy post-election, then a new young pope should have the vigor and energy to intervene and stabilize things.</p>
<p>We're not endorsing the argument. But it is amusing.</p>
<p>Blaine writes:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">And finally to the reason I think BTPs might be less vulnerable to electoral mischance than we fear. I&rsquo;m thinking the new pope could be a very steadying influence...</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">...</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">&nbsp;Replacing a deeply religious and conservative pope with a more secular player who will be more properly cogent of the Vatican&rsquo;s perception of its place at the heart of Italy - especially at a time of rudderless politics - solves a number of issues.&nbsp; And the timing could not be better. The month end Italian elections look irretrievably tied and a hopeless coalition is in prospect. And just as Italy wobbles, we&rsquo;ll see the election of a popularly acclaimed younger pope in early March. Just in time to become a de-facto kingmaker.&nbsp; That may make the prospect of Italian coalition confusion more bearable &ndash; and less to panic about. Monti&rsquo;s showing in the election may be so poor as to rule him out of a future&nbsp; unelected premiership, but others in his circle, like Passera, could find themselves elevated in a future &ldquo;unity government&rdquo; brokered by the church.&nbsp; Why does it matter? Should Vatican politics impinge on BTP markets, Italian Stocks or Europe more broadly? Probably a good thing the wilder excesses of Italian politics are contained.. but.. really&hellip; <br /><br />Don&rsquo;t discount it.. the bottom investment line may be that a messy Italian election could be swiftly corrected through the mediation of the church - buy Italy on electoral dip?</p>
<p>Okay.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-replace-pope-benedict-2013-2" >One of these men will be the new pope ></a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/buy-italian-bonds-on-the-popes-resignation-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/abuse-victims-react-to-popes-retirement-2013-2Why Sex Abuse Victims Won't Miss This Popehttp://www.businessinsider.com/abuse-victims-react-to-popes-retirement-2013-2
Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:22:12 -0500Ian Traynor, Karen McVeigh, Henry McDonald
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/51196e35eab8ea6706000011-400-300/pope-benedict-xvi-cuba.jpg" border="0" alt="Pope Benedict XVI Cuba" /></p><p>For the legions of people whose childhoods and adult lives were wrecked by sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy, Pope Benedict XVI is an unloved pontiff who will not be missed.</p>
<p>Victims of the epidemic of sex- and child-abuse scandals that erupted under Benedict's papacy reacted bitterly to his resignation, either charging the outgoing pontiff with being directly complicit in a criminal conspiracy to cover up the thousands of paedophilia cases that have come to light over the past three years, or with failing to stand up to reactionary elements in the church resolved to keep the scandals under wraps.</p>
<p>From Benedict's native Germany to the USA, abuse victims and campaigners criticised an eight-year papacy that struggled to cope with the flood of disclosures of crimes and abuse rampant for decades within the church. Matthias Katsch, of the <a href="http://netzwerkb.org/" title="">NetworkB group of German clerical-abuse victims</a>, said: "The rule of law is more important than a new pope."</p>
<p>Norbert Denef, 64, from the Baltic coast of north Germany, was abused as a boy by his local priest for six years. In 2003, Denef took his case to the bishop of Magdeburg. He was offered &euro;25,000 (then &pound;17,000) in return for a signed pledge of silence about what he suffered as a six-year-old boy. He then raised the issue with the Vatican and received a letter that said Pope John Paul II would pray for him so that Denef could forgive his molester.</p>
<p>"We won't miss this pope," said Denef. He likened the Vatican's treatment of the molestation disclosures to "mafia-style organised crime rings".</p>
<p>That view was echoed by David Clohessy in the US, executive director of <a href="http://www.snapnetwork.org/united_states" title="">SNAP (Survivors' Network of those Abused by Priests)</a>, an organisation with 12,000 members: "His record is terrible. Before he became pope, his predecessor put him in charge of the abuse crisis.</p>
<p>"He has read thousands of pages of reports of the abuse cases from across the world. He knows more about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups than anyone else in the church yet he has done precious little to protect children."</p>
<p>Jakob Purkarthofer, of Austria's Platform for Victims of Church Violence, said: "Ratzinger was part of the system and co-responsible for these crimes."</p>
<p>Under the German pope, his native country, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Austria were rocked by clerical sex-abuse scandals, triggering revulsion at the clergy in Europe just when Benedict saw his mission as leading a Catholic revival on a secular continent.</p>
<p>Before becoming pope, there were also major scandals in the US and Ireland at a time when Pope John Paul II had put the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in charge of dealing with them.</p>
<p>A combination of deep rancour and disgust over the crimes and disaffection with the conservative ethics of the Catholic hierarchy has nudged the church in Austria towards schism, with rebel priests leading an anti-Vatican movement of hundreds of thousands, dubbed We Are The Church.</p>
<p>"He should have come clean about the abuses, but was not really able to change anything fundamentally," said Purkarthofer. "The resignation is a chance for real change, perhaps the best thing he could have done for the church."</p>
<p>While also intensely critical, some Irish victims of the seminaries, convent schools, and church-run orphanages gave the pope the benefit of the doubt, but lamented that not enough action had followed Benedict's expressions of remorse in the spring of 2010.</p>
<p>"When the pope issued his pastoral letter to the people of Ireland we welcomed it," said one Irish campaigner. "Because of the sincerity of the words in that letter from the pope in the name of the church. He said he was 'truly sorry' and accepted that our 'dignity had been violated'.</p>
<p>"So we went on to meet the group of bishops in Ireland thinking that this would be a new era. But what we got instead were pastoral platitudes and special masses offered up."</p>
<p>The fallout from these scandals continues to reverberate. Next Monday campaigners for justice are to protest in the ancient west German city of Trier when the country's church leadership gathers. Last month a church-sponsored inquiry into the abuses collapsed in disarray amid recrimination between the clergy and outside criminologists involved in the examination.</p>
<p>A similar situation persists in Austria, where a church-led inquiry into the abuse and compensation has degenerated, in the view of activists, into a smokescreen. In Belgium, where the head of the church nationally had to resign and then made matters worse by going on television to plead innocence while admitting "intimacy" by having boys in his bed, there are parallel frustrations with the partial nature of the church's openness.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago US activists sought to file a criminal suit against the Vatican at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, while victims' associations responded to the current drama by demanding an international commission be set up to examine Catholic paedophilia, independent of the church.</p>
<p>Clohessy said a big question for Benedict's successor is "what he will do in a very tangible way to safeguard children, deter cover-ups, punish enablers and chart a new course.</p>
<p>"There are 30 bishops in the US [who] have posted on the diocese websites the names of predator priests. The pope should require bishops to do that and to work with secular lawmakers to reform archaic sex abuse laws so that predators from every walk of life face justice."</p>
<p>John Kelly, one founder of Ireland's Survivors of Child Abuse group and a former inmate at Dublin's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-church-child-abuse1" title="">notorious Artane Industrial School</a>, which was run by the Christian Brothers, said Benedict had resisted their demands to properly investigate and disband religious orders tainted by sexual and physical abuse.</p>
<p>"In our view, we were let down in terms of promises of inquiries, reform and most importantly of all the Vatican continuing not to acknowledge that any priest or religious bodies found guilty of child abuse would face the civil authorities and be tried for their crimes in the courts.</p>
<p>"I'm afraid to say Pope Benedict won't be missed as the Vatican continued to block proper investigations into the abuse scandals during his term in office. Nor are we confident that things are going to be different because of all the conservative Cardinals he appointed. For us, he broke his word."</p>
<p>The Austrian campaigner called for church files on paedophilia to be opened and generous compensation for the victims.</p>
<p>Katsch pointed to the discrepancies between the response in the US and in Europe, insisting that clergy suspects must be brought before the law.</p>
<p>"From our point of view, Ratzinger did nothing to support the victims. Instead, perpetrators and serial perpetrators were protected and moved to new jobs," he said.</p>
<p>"Victims in the US have been compensated sometimes with more than a million dollars and the personal files of the perpetrators were put on the internet. But the victims of sexual violence by the clergy in Germany had to settle for a few thousand euros, often conditional on pledges of silence and no more claims.</p>
<p>"We demand from German politicians that this concern [the church] is no longer beyond the rule of law. That's more important than waiting to see whether a new pope will be more reactionary than the old one."</p>
<p><img src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-api/1/H.20.3/98867?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Pope+Benedict+%27complicit+in+child+sex+abuse+scandals%27%2C+say+victims%27+groups+Article+1866177&amp;ch=World+news&amp;c2=53056&amp;c4=Pope+Benedict+XVI%2CVatican+%28World+news%29%2CReligion+%28News%29%2CCatholicism+%28News%29%2CChristianity+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CIreland+%28News%29%2CEurope+%28News%29%2CGermany%2CAustria+%28News%29%2CBelgium+%28News%29%2CUS+news%2CNetherlands+%28News%29&amp;c3=guardian.co.uk&amp;c6=Ian+Traynor+in+Brussels%2C+Karen+McVeigh+in+New+York+and+Henry+McDonald+in+Dublin&amp;c7=13-Feb-11&amp;c8=1866177&amp;c9=Article" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p>
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<p>This article originally appeared on <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/11/pope-complicit-child-abuse-say-victims">guardian.co.uk</a></p>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="http://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT0yYjk5MmQ3ZGViY2RlMTliMjM1M2UwMWEyNGE0YmE1YyZvd25lcj01ZGYyMDgwZWQ3Y2QxN2VjMjVhYWU2ZTkwYWU2MzNmMiZub25jZT00YjFmODg2NS0yNGNjLTRmYTctOGQ1NS05NDc4N2I4ZWQ1NjcmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/abuse-victims-react-to-popes-retirement-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-next-pope-will-be-selected-2013-2This How The Next Pope Will Be Selected — And Why Europe Starts With A Huge Advantagehttp://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-next-pope-will-be-selected-2013-2
Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:55:40 -0500Walter Hickey
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/511904f8ecad047142000003-400-/catholic-cardinals.jpg" border="0" alt="Catholic cardinals" width="400" /></p><p>The next man selected to be the pope will lead a flock of approximately one billion Catholics, rocketing the selected pope from relative obscurity to international power.</p>
<p>The process to select the pope involves more than one hundred church leaders from all over the world locking themselves inside the Vatican for days of voting at a conclave .&nbsp;</p>
<p>Parts of the procedure are ancient when compared to other electoral systems, and the whole system&nbsp;<a href="http://people.howstuffworks.com/papacy3.htm">is rather complex.</a></p>
<p>The College of Cardinals is the collective group of Cardinals in the church. At the moment, there are 209 Cardinals.&nbsp;</p>
<p>There will be at most 120 electors drawn from this College to vote for the next Pope at the conclave.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Any Cardinal who turns 80 before the day the Papacy is vacated cannot take part in the election. Pope Benedict XVI will vacate the papacy on February 28.</p>
<p>Any Cardinal born before February 28, 1933 is automatically eliminated, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aon7Ed2duFOGdHhnbUpCV2JocEtUZ2FLTDlJZjN0TkE&amp;usp=sharing">narrowing this Conclave's possible field of electors to 116 Cardinals.</a></p>
<p>The composition of that group is crucial when analyzing the potential selections of Popes. Each region has a certain number of Cardinals representing their area at the Vatican. Of the Electors:</p>
<ul>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">10 are from Africa</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">12 are from Asia</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">20 are from North America</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">13 from South America</span></li>
<li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>61 are from Europe</strong>.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&nbsp;Of the European delegation, 28 of the 61 European Cardinals are from Italy.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>The Conclave to select Benedict's replacement will begin sometime between March 15 and March 20. From <a href="https://www.ewtn.com/holysee/Interregnum/entry.asp">the start of the conclave onward,</a> the Cardinals are completely cut off from the outside world inside a hospice within the Vatican. Voting takes place inside a locked Sistine Chapel.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Two ballots <a href="https://www.ewtn.com/holysee/Interregnum/voting.asp">will be held each day</a> and a two-thirds plus one majority is required to elect the Pope.&nbsp;</p>
<p>After 12 or 13 days, the Cardinals can swap over to majority voting to expedite the process.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The top of each ballot is inscribed with the latin <em>Eligo in Summum Pontificem</em> which translates to "I elect as supreme pontiff." The elector than writes the name of the desired choice on the ballot in secret. As each Cardinal votes, they pray, and deposit their vote at the altar.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Three Cardinals delegated as Scrutineers count the ballots, ensure everyone has voted, <a href="https://www.ewtn.com/holysee/Interregnum/results.asp">each make a count and then burn the ballots</a>. The scrutineers douse the discarded ballots with chemicals to make the smoke black if there isn't a Pope, and make the smoke white in the event that <em>"Habemus Papam."</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-replace-pope-benedict-2013-2"><strong>Now click here to see the men most likely to be named Pope --- &gt;</strong></a><br /></em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-next-pope-will-be-selected-2013-2#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-replace-pope-benedict-2013-2One Of These Men Will Be The New Popehttp://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-replace-pope-benedict-2013-2
Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:30:00 -0500Michael Brendan Dougherty
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/511904d1eab8ea511000000e-610-/cards.png" border="0" alt="cardinals " width="610" /></p><p></p>
<p>This morning comes the shocking news that Pope Benedict XVI intends to resign as Pope later this month after a nearly-eight year reign as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church.<br /> <br /> This is a distressing and&ndash;to some degree&ndash;unprecedented&ndash;move. There are only three examples of Popes resigning in the history of the Church and they all came under extraordinary circumstances, none have done it for reasons of health, which appear to be at the forefront . In 1045, Pope Benedict IX was pressured to resign but was eventually re-installed on the Papal throne because his resignation appeared to be &ldquo;selling&rdquo; his office. Pope Celestine V, a reclusive monk, resigned in 1294. He had months earlier declared it permissible for a Pope to resign, establishing the tiny legal precedent that Benedict appears to be exercising now. Finally Pope Gregory XII abdicated the papal throne in 1415 to end the great Western Schism.<br /> <br /> Benedict&rsquo;s own pontificate appears incomplete. His project of re-ordering the Curia Offices (the machinery of the Vatican) seems only half-complete. He has said that one of the missions of his papacy was to heal the schism with a group of Traditionalists, the Society of St. Pius X. That task remains unfinished and seems unlikely to be taken up by his successors. His efforts at reforming the post-Vatican II worship of the Catholic Church seem tenuous and even timid, though he may have provided momentum to the cause.<br /> <br /> Of course the next question is who will succeed Pope Benedict XVI? &nbsp;Whoever is chosen by the College of Cardinals at the forthcoming conclave will have the delicate task of governing the Church while his predecessor still lives.<br /><br />We've gone through the likely names, weighed the odds, and assessed the pros and cons of each possible candidate.</p>
<div class="yj6qo ajU">
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</div><h3>Cardinal Marc Ouellet</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4f902ebeecad04540f000020-400-300/cardinal-marc-ouellet.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><strong>Country:</strong>&nbsp;Canada</p>
<p><strong>Position:</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;Prefect of the&nbsp;Congregation for Bishops, formerly Archbishop of Quebec.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Age:</strong>&nbsp;<span>68</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Likelihood: </strong>Paddy Power ranks him 5/2. He has done missionary work in South America. Last year we said that our money was on Ouellet. His rank among the betters has shot up dramatically. <br /></span></p>
<p><strong>What His Election Would Mean:</strong>&nbsp;It's a global Church now. His work in helping to vet and select bishops would give him the ability as pope to dramatically shape the Church for a generation or more.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He'll Get Elected:</strong>&nbsp;Most qualified. He speaks English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and German fluently. He has done missionary work in South America.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He Might Not Get Elected:</strong>&nbsp;He might decline. (You can decline your election) &nbsp;He has given every indication that papacy is a "crushing responsibility" that he would hesitate to take. Then again, that is exactly what makes him an attractive candidate.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4f904d5decad04b341000025-400-300/cardinal-peter-kodwo-appiah-turkson.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><strong>Country:</strong>&nbsp;Ghana</p>
<p><strong>Position:</strong>&nbsp;President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace</p>
<p><strong>Age:</strong>&nbsp;<span>64</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Likelihood: </strong>High odds according to Paddy Power: 4/1, which seems way high to us even though he is a very strong candidate.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>What His Election Would Mean:</strong>&nbsp;That the Cardinals recognize the future isn't in Benedict's Europe but in the explosive growth of the Church in the "global South"</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He'll Get Elected:</strong>&nbsp;He is a superstar in the College of Cardinals, a great communicator, and symbol of the global reach of the Church.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Reasons He Might Not Get Elected:</strong>&nbsp;The Catholic Church in Africa can be very disconnected from the Church that the majority of the European Cardinals live in. In Africa the top issues aren't sexual politics and theological disputes, they are exorcism, animism, the growth of Islam, and condemnation of Western economic policy.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Cardinal Leonardo Sandri</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5118f9606bb3f7511b00000c-400-300/cardinal-leonardo-sandri.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>Country</strong>: Argentina</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"></span><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Position</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">: &nbsp;President of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">(He works with those Catholics who celebrate Eastern-style liturgies.)</span></p>
<p><span></span><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Age</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">: 69</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Likelihood</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">: Paddy Power has him at 5/1. &nbsp;A contender.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">What His Election Would Mean</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">: That after having opened the door for&nbsp;</span><span>Anglicans to enter into communion with Rome, the Papacy must work&nbsp;</span><span>toward closer relations with the Eastern Orthodox Churches.</span></p>
<p><span></span><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Reasons He'll Get Elected</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">: He has extremely powerful and influential&nbsp;</span><span>allies (and cheerleaders) within the Curia, including Cardinal&nbsp;</span><span>Secretary of State Bertone. He speaks well in five languages.</span></p>
<p><span></span><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Reasons He Might Not Get Elected</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">: Any internal backlash against&nbsp;</span><span>Cardinal Bertone&rsquo;s influence on the coming conclave could hurt Sandri.</span></p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/who-will-replace-pope-benedict-2013-2#cardinal-gianfranco-ravasi-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-vatican-built-a-secret-property-empire-using-mussolinis-millions-2013-1How The Vatican Built A Secret Property Empire Using Mussolini's Millionshttp://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-vatican-built-a-secret-property-empire-using-mussolinis-millions-2013-1
Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:14:00 -0500David Leigh, Jean François Tanda and Jessica Benhamou
<p><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50feba0769bedda745000024-400-/vat.jpg" border="0" alt="new bond street london" width="400" />Few passing London tourists would ever guess that the premises of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/bulgari" class="hidden_link">Bulgari</a>, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street, had anything to do with the pope. Nor indeed the nearby headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/square" class="hidden_link">Square</a> and Pall Mall.</span></p>
<p>But these office blocks in one of London's most expensive districts are part of a surprising secret commercial property empire owned by the Vatican.</p>
<p>Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929.</p>
<p>Since then the international value of Mussolini's nest-egg has mounted until it now exceeds &pound;500m. In 2006, at the height of the recent property bubble, the Vatican spent &pound;15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square. Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of Coventry. It also owns blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland.</p>
<p>The surprising aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the Mussolini millions. The St James's Square office block was bought by a company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which also holds the other UK properties. Published registers at Companies House do not disclose the company's true ownership, nor make any mention of the Vatican.</p>
<p>Instead, they list two nominee shareholders, both prominent Catholic bankers: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/john-varley-1" class="hidden_link">John Varley</a>, recently chief executive of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/barclays" class="hidden_link">Barclays</a> Bank, and Robin Herbert, formerly of the Leopold Joseph merchant bank. Letters were sent from the Guardian to each of them asking whom they act for. They went unanswered. British company law allows the true beneficial ownership of companies to be concealed behind nominees in this way.</p>
<p>The company secretary, John Jenkins, a Reading accountant, was equally uninformative. He told us the firm was owned by a trust but refused to identify it on grounds of confidentiality. He told us after taking instructions: "I confirm that I am not authorised by my client to provide any information."</p>
<p>Research in old archives, however, reveals more of the truth. Companies House files disclose that British Grolux Investments inherited its entire property portfolio after a reorganisation in 1999 from two predecessor companies called British Grolux Ltd and Cheylesmore Estates. The shares of those firms were in turn held by a company based at the address of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/jp-morgan" class="hidden_link">JP Morgan</a> bank in New York. Ultimate control is recorded as being exercised by a Swiss company, Profima SA.</p>
<p>British wartime records from the National Archives in Kew complete the picture. They confirm Profima SA as the Vatican's own holding company, accused at the time of "engaging in activities contrary to Allied interests". Files from officials at Britain's Ministry of Economic Warfare at the end of the war criticised the pope's financier, Bernardino Nogara, who controlled the investment of more than &pound;50m cash from the Mussolini windfall.</p>
<p>Nogara's "shady activities" were detailed in intercepted 1945 cable traffic from the Vatican to a contact in Geneva, according to the British, who discussed whether to blacklist Profima as a result. "Nogara, a Roman lawyer, is the Vatican financial agent and Profima SA in Lausanne is the Swiss holding company for certain Vatican interests." They believed Nogara was trying to transfer shares of two Vatican-owned French property firms to the Swiss company, to prevent the French government blacklisting them as enemy assets.</p>
<p>Earlier in the war, in 1943, the British accused Nogara of similar "dirty work", by shifting Italian bank shares into Profima's hands in order to "whitewash" them and present the bank as being controlled by Swiss neutrals. This was described as "manipulation" of Vatican finances to serve "extraneous political ends".</p>
<p>The Mussolini money was dramatically important to the Vatican's finances. John Pollard, a Cambridge historian, says in Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: "The papacy was now financially secure. It would never be poor again."</p>
<p>From the outset, Nogara was innovative in investing the cash. In 1931 records show he founded an offshore company in Luxembourg to hold the continental European property assets he was buying. It was called Groupement Financier Luxembourgeois, hence Grolux. Luxembourg was one of the first countries to set up tax-haven company structures in 1929. The UK end, called British Grolux, was incorporated the following year.</p>
<p>When war broke out, with the prospect of a German invasion, the Luxembourg operation and ostensible control of the British Grolux operation were moved to the US and to neutral Switzerland.</p>
<p>The Mussolini investments in Britain are currently controlled, along with its other European holdings and a currency trading arm, by a papal official in Rome, Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the pope's merchant banker. Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA &ndash; Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica &ndash; which handles the so-called "patrimony of the Holy See".</p>
<p>According to a report last year from the Council of Europe, which surveyed the Vatican's financial controls, the assets of Mennini's special unit now exceed &euro;680m (&pound;570m).</p>
<p>While secrecy about the Fascist origins of the papacy's wealth might have been understandable in wartime, what is less clear is why the Vatican subsequently continued to maintain secrecy about its holdings in Britain, even after its financial structure was reorganised in 1999.</p>
<p>The Guardian asked the Vatican's representative in London, the papal nuncio, archbishop Antonio Mennini, why the papacy continued with such secrecy over the identity of its property investments in London. We also asked what the pope spent the income on. True to its tradition of silence on the subject, the Roman Catholic church's spokesman said that the nuncio had no comment.</p>
<p><img src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-api/1/H.20.3/98867?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=How+the+Vatican+built+a+secret+property+empire+using+Mussolini%27s+millions+Article+1856232&amp;ch=World+news&amp;c2=53056&amp;c4=Vatican+%28World+news%29%2CItaly+%28News%29%2CReligion+%28News%29%2CCatholicism+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CProperty+%28Money+-+UK+consumer%29%2CMoney%2CTax+and+spending%2CBanking+%28Business+sector%29%2CBusiness%2CUK+news&amp;c3=The+Guardian&amp;c6=David+Leigh%2C+Jean+Fran%C3%A7ois+Tanda+and+Jessica+Benhamou&amp;c7=13-Jan-21&amp;c8=1856232&amp;c9=Article" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p>
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<p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-tourists-never-see-2012-5?op=1#ixzz2IinZJHxd">These Are The Parts Of The Vatican That Tourists Never See</a></strong><span><br /></span></p>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="http://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT1jZWJkODM5OWZjOWZhODU4MTBmZTVhMGIzY2I1ZGMwNiZvd25lcj01ZGYyMDgwZWQ3Y2QxN2VjMjVhYWU2ZTkwYWU2MzNmMiZub25jZT0xZGFiYjVhNi05Y2UxLTQ1NGItOTY5ZS03ODAwYmI4OTEzNzAmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-vatican-built-a-secret-property-empire-using-mussolinis-millions-2013-1#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/photo-pope-benedict-tweets-ipad-tablet-2012-12Here's A Picture Of The Pope Firing Off His First Tweet From His Tablethttp://www.businessinsider.com/photo-pope-benedict-tweets-ipad-tablet-2012-12
Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:30:06 -0500Brett LoGiurato
<p>Pope Benedict XVI <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-was-the-popes-first-tweet-2012-12" target="_blank">fired off his first tweet this morning</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The AP has more details:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="color: #000000;">In perhaps the most drawn out <a class="hidden_link" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/twitter">Twitter</a> launch ever, the 85-year-old&nbsp;Benedict&nbsp;pushed the button on a tablet brought to him at the end of his general audience after the equivalent of a papal drum roll by an announcer who intoned: "And now the pope will tweet!"&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Here's The AP's photo of the Pope tweeting:</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/50c893d669bedde51a00000a-1050-/ap363586359880.jpg" border="0" alt="Pope Benedict tweet" width="1050" /><br /></span></p>
<p><span><br /></span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/photo-pope-benedict-tweets-ipad-tablet-2012-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pope-says-the-entire-christian-calender-is-wrong-2012-11The Pope Says The Entire Christian Calendar Is Wronghttp://www.businessinsider.com/the-pope-says-the-entire-christian-calender-is-wrong-2012-11
Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:20:00 -0500Nick Squires
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/50ad0c20eab8ea910f000019/pope-benedict-xvi.jpg" border="0" alt="Pope Benedict XVI" /></p><p>The entire Christian calendar is based on a miscalculation, the Pope has declared, as he claims in a new book that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly believed.</p>
<p>The 'mistake' was made by a sixth century monk known as Dionysius Exiguus or in English Dennis the Small, the 85-year-old pontiff claims in the book 'Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives', published on Wednesday.</p>
<p>"The calculation of the beginning of our calendar &ndash; based on the birth of Jesus &ndash; was made by Dionysius Exiguus, who made a mistake in his calculations by several years," <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/"><em>the Pope</em></a> writes in the book, which went on sale around the world with an initial print run of a million copies.</p>
<p>"The actual date of Jesus's birth was several years before."</p>
<p>The assertion that the Christian calendar is based on a false premise is not new &ndash; many historians believe that Christ was born sometime between 7BC and 2BC.</p>
<p>But the fact that doubts over one of the keystones of Christian tradition have been raised by the leader of the world's one billion Catholics is striking.</p>
<p>Dennis the Small, who was born in Eastern Europe, is credited with being the "inventor" of the modern calendar and the concept of the Anno Domini era.</p>
<p>He drew up the new system in part to distance it from the calendar in use at the time, which was based on the years since the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian.</p>
<p>The emperor had persecuted Christians, so there was good reason to expunge him from the new dating system in favour of one inspired by the birth of Christ.</p>
<p>The monk's calendar became widely accepted in Europe after it was adopted by the Venerable Bede, the historian-monk, to date the events that he recounted in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he completed in AD 731.</p>
<p>But exactly how Dennis calculated the year of Christ's birth is not clear and the Pope's claim that he made a mistake is a view shared by many scholars.</p>
<p>The Bible does not specify a date for the birth of Christ. The monk instead appears to have based his calculations on vague references to Jesus's age at the start of his ministry and the fact that he was baptized in the reign of the emperor Tiberius.</p>
<p>Christ's birth date is not the only controversy raised by the Pope in his new book &ndash; <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/9691295/Nativity-donkeys-and-cattle-are-a-myth-says-Pope.html"><em>he also said that contrary to the traditional Nativity scene, there were no oxen, donkeys or other animals at Jesus's birth</em></a> .</p>
<p>He also weighs in on the debate over Christ's birthplace, rejecting arguments by some scholars that he was born in Nazareth rather than Bethlehem.</p>
<p>John Barton, Professor of the Interpretation of the Holy Scripture at Oriel College, Oxford University, said most academics agreed with the Pope that the Christian calendar was wrong and that Jesus was born several years earlier than commonly thought, probably between 6BC and 4BC.</p>
<p>"There is no reference to when he was born in the Bible - all we know is that he was born in the reign of Herod the Great, who died before 1AD," he told <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/the-daily" class="hidden_link">The Daily</a> Telegraph. "It's been surmised for a very long time that Jesus was born before 1AD so technically we may well be living in 2007 or 2008 or whatever - no one knows for sure."</p>
<p>The idea that Christ was born on Dec 25 also has no basis in historical fact. "We don't even know which season he was born in. The whole idea of celebrating his birth during the darkest part of the year is probably linked to pagan traditions and the winter solstice."</p>
<p><img class="nc_pixel" src="http://pixel.newscred.com/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT1iMGE2MDUzNmI3ZDExM2QxODQzOWU4NGNjMWVhZGUwMSZvd25lcj1hZWE2NjI4NzUzY2RjZGMzMjhkOTkzM2MwZTIwZDU4YyZub25jZT01NGM2ZjI5OC02NjFlLTQ0YzgtYWY0Yi1mNWNiNGI3OGNkZjEmcHVibGlzaGVyPThjMDBmYmVlNjFkNWJjZjBjNjA5MmQ4YjkyZWJiY2Ex" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" /></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pope-says-the-entire-christian-calender-is-wrong-2012-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedicts-ex-butler-gets-18-months-in-jail-for-stealing-secret-documents-2012-10Pope Benedict's Ex-Butler Gets 18 Months In Jail http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedicts-ex-butler-gets-18-months-in-jail-for-stealing-secret-documents-2012-10
Sat, 06 Oct 2012 07:29:00 -0400Dario Thuburn
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/50701571ecad04d54400002b-400-/pope-benedict-xvi.gif" border="0" alt="Pope Benedict XVI" width="400" /></p><p>Pope Benedict XVI's former butler Paolo Gabriele Saturday got 18 months in prison for stealing secret documents from the Vatican that reveal fraud and intrigue in the tiny state.</p>
<p>Presiding judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre gave the ex-butler three years but immediately reduced the sentence to 18 months on the grounds of his past service rendered to the Catholic Church and his apology to the pope for betraying him.</p>
<p>"In the name of his holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who reigns in glory, and invoking the Holy Trinity... this court sentences the defendant to three years in prison," the judge said as Gabriele looked on impassively.</p>
<p>"Considering the absence of a criminal record, of the subjective though erroneous motivation, and the acknowledgement of having betrayed the trust of the holy father, it reduces the sentence to one year and six months," he added.</p>
<p>Gabriele was found guilty of stealing hundreds of sensitive Vatican documents from the pope's palace, including letters from cardinals and politicians and papers that the pontiff himself had marked "To Be Destroyed".</p>
<p>The Vatican's prosecutor, Nicola Picardi, had called for the former butler to go to jail for three years.</p>
<p>"It was a good sentence," said Gabriele's lawyer Cristiana Arru, who added that she would "have to evaluate" whether her client would appeal the ruling which brought to an end an expeditious trial that began just a week ago.</p>
<p>In his final statement, Gabriele said he had "acted out of visceral love for the Church of Christ and of its leader on earth."</p>
<p>"I do not feel that I am a thief," he added, as Arru called on the judge to be lenient on a man who was driven by "a moral motivation" and who had by no means cooked up a "scheme or plot" aimed at damaging the Church or the pope.</p>
<p>The former butler had claimed from the start that he was a whistleblower seeking to root out "evil and corruption" at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church after observing that the 85-year-old pontiff was not well informed and perhaps even "manipulated".</p>
<p>Using the codename "Maria", Gabriele met with an Italian journalist over several months and passed him the confidential documents.</p>
<p>He had admitted responsibility for the leaks. While claiming to be "innocent" of the charge of theft, he said he felt "guilty" of betraying the trust the pope had placed in him.</p>
<p>The personal letter he wrote to Benedict to ask for his forgiveness no doubt influenced the judge's decision to cut his sentence in half.</p>
<p>Many experts have said he may receive a pardon from the pope, who has been following the case closely.</p>
<p>Vatican gendarmes said their search of Gabriele's home in the Vatican had revealed more than 1,000 sensitive papal papers as well as a huge amount of printed material about freemasonry, spying techniques and Vatican finances.</p>
<p>Gabriele has alleged he was mistreated by the gendarmes when he was held for 53 days in two "security rooms" at the Vatican, complaining that the lights were kept on for 24 hours a day for the first three weeks of his detention.</p>
<p>Gianluigi Nuzzi, the Italian journalist to whom Gabriele has admitted passing the documents, called the butler "courageous" and said he wants an inquiry into the allegations in the papers and not into how they were leaked.</p>
<p>The documents published in Nuzzi's book "His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI" contained allegations of fraud in the running of the city state and cloak-and-dagger intrigue among the pope's closest collaborators.</p>
<p>Many of the documents contain barbs against the Vatican's powerful Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, a divisive figure who has expanded his powers since being appointed by the pope in 2006 and is challenged by some leading prelates.</p>
<p>The trial took place in a courtroom decorated with a portrait of the pope and Vatican insignia in a part of the Holy See that is strictly off limits to the millions of tourists and pilgrims who visit St Peter's every year.</p>
<p>The Vatican's criminal law dates back to the 19th century and the pope holds wide powers including the right to dismiss a case at any point during a trial.</p>
<p>The fact that the pope has not done so and that journalists have been allowed into the courtroom shows a desire for transparency, some experts say.</p>
<p>The trial has also offered a rare glimpse into the daily life of the "pontifical family" made up of the pope's secretaries and domestic staff.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pope-benedicts-ex-butler-gets-18-months-in-jail-for-stealing-secret-documents-2012-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/renault-gave-the-pope-a-customized-electric-car-for-summer-cruising-2012-9Renault Gave The Pope A Customized Electric Car For Summer Cruisinghttp://www.businessinsider.com/renault-gave-the-pope-a-customized-electric-car-for-summer-cruising-2012-9
Fri, 07 Sep 2012 11:41:00 -0400Alex Davies
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/504a0bd6eab8ea716a000007/pope-popemobile-renault-electric.jpg" border="0" alt="pope popemobile renault electric" /></p><p>Pope Benedict XVI is now the proud owner of an electric car. On Wednesday, French automaker Renault presented him with a customized version of its Kangoo Maxi Z.E.</p>
<p>Powered by a 44kW electric motor, it has an opening roof, removable rear side windows, electrically folding door steps, and "particularly comfortable" seats, all to keep the 85-year-old pontiff riding in style.</p>
<p>The new car will be used to ferry the Benedict around the grounds of Castel Gandolfo, his luxurious summer residence outside of Rome. Not to be used for public appearances, it lacks the bulletproof glass and security features that are the mark of a true Popemobile.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/pope-now-a-bit-greener-with-electric-car-for-jaunts-around-castel-gandolfo/2012/09/05/03aafa92-f77b-11e1-a93b-7185e3f88849_story.html">the <em>Washington Post</em> reports</a>, the Pope is known for his environmental policies, including the installation of photovoltaic cells on the Vatican's main auditorium and a program to offset carbon emissions through reforestation.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/504a0bed69beddda15000008/pope-popemobile-renault-electric.jpg" border="0" alt="pope popemobile renault electric" width="618" height="412" /></p>
<h2><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/smith-electric-delivery-vehicles-in-nyc-2012-9">Now see the electric trucks that are poised to take over New York City &gt;</a></h2>
<p>[Via <a href="http://jalopnik.com/5940906/this-is-the-first-electric-popemobile">Jalopnik</a>]</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/renault-gave-the-pope-a-customized-electric-car-for-summer-cruising-2012-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-bank-new-investigation-targets-mafia-links-2012-6The Vatican Bank Is Reportedly Under Investigation For Laundering Millions For A Mafia Godfatherhttp://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-bank-new-investigation-targets-mafia-links-2012-6
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:54:56 -0400Samuel Blackstone
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/4fda04faecad04185c000001-400-300/pope-benedict-xvi.gif" border="0" alt="Pope Benedict XVI" width="400" height="300" /></p><p>New reports detailing widespread corruption and money laundering in the Vatican are coming out again, this time linking the Vatican with Sicilian mafia bosses, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/9323288/Prosecutors-investigate-Vatican-Bank-mafia-link.html">the Telegraph reports</a>.</p>
<p>Sicilian mafia Godfather Matteo Messina Denaro and Father Ninni Treppiedi are the two names being mentioned in this episode.</p>
<p>Treppiedi, formerly the cleric of Aclamo, the&nbsp;richest&nbsp;parish in mafia safe haven Sicily, was relieved of his duties earlier this year when his bank's transactions attracted the attention of anti-mafia investigators. The transactions, which date back to 2007-2009, are said to involve millions of euros, <a href="http://www.rt.com/news/vatican-mafia-laundering-money-716/">according to RT</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span></span>Prosecutors believe the transactions may have been attempts at laundering the riches of Mafia Godfather Denaro. Denaro is said to be one of the most wanted men on earth, and has something of a celebrity status in Italy (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Messina_Denaro_Espresso.jpg">he appeared on the cover of l'Espresso in 2001</a>).</p>
<p>This latest development comes on the heels of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-vatican-bank-chief-has-been-ousted-after-a-no-confidence-vote-2012-5">firing of Vatican Bank president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-popes-butler-has-been-arrested-for-leaking-secret-vatican-documents-2012-5">the arrest and imprisonment of the Pope's personal butler</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-mafia-enrico-de-pedis-ugo-poletti-2012-4">and a report that mob boss Enrico de Pedis was buried next to former popes after his family paid one billion lire to the Vatican in 1990</a>. &nbsp;</p>
<p>The lack of transparency in the Vatican's financial dealings was even recently questioned by JPMorgan Chase, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-shuts-down-the-vatican-banks-account-due-to-lack-of-transparency-2012-3">shutting down the Vatican's bank account in Chase's Milan branch.</a> &nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vatican-bank-new-investigation-targets-mafia-links-2012-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/something-is-really-fishy-about-the-arrest-of-the-popes-butler-2012-5Something Is Fishy About The Arrest Of The Pope's Butlerhttp://www.businessinsider.com/something-is-really-fishy-about-the-arrest-of-the-popes-butler-2012-5
Sun, 27 May 2012 05:29:00 -0400Michael Brendan Dougherty
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4e4d30f0eab8eaa90a000017/pope-benedict-xvi.jpg" border="0" alt="Pope Benedict XVI" /></p><p>The Pope's personal butler,&nbsp;<span>Paolo Gabriele, 46 was arrested last week in connection with the leaking of letters from the Vatican, including many personal ones to and from Pope Benedict himself.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>The story has all the elements of a punchline, or a 19th century potboiler. A butler being held in the Vatican's own rarely-used jail, spying on the Holy Father.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>The truth can be better than fiction and it usually is.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But there is something a little off about this story - at least to this Vatican-watcher.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span>Some of the leaked letters have exposed embarrassing mismanagement at Vatican palace, and enormous power struggles, and they are being published in a book in Italy later this month. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p>This arrest comes during the same week that the Vatican <a href="http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/director-vatican-bank-resigns-under-pressure">dismissed the head of its own bank</a>,&nbsp;<span>Gotti Tedeschi,</span> after a no confidence vote. Tedeschi was suspected of money-laundering and mismanagement. The leaked letters seem to have moved Vatican officials to act more quickly.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Earlier this year,<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/26/world/europe/italy-vatican-leak/index.html"> it was reported</a> that the leaked letters contained the correspondence of a prelate, <span>Carlo Maria Vigano,</span>&nbsp;working in Rome who told the Holy Father about corruption in the Vatican's money-management. Vigano pleaded with Benedict to hold onto his post so that he could continue the Holy Father's mission of cleaning house, but Vigano was transferred to the States at the Holy Father's diplomatic representative.&nbsp;</p>
<p>However, there is something about this story that makes little sense.&nbsp;Gabriele is the guy who helps the Pope get dressed, and handles things in the papal apartment. He was also appointed to his role under John Paul II. &nbsp;He absolutely would have access to some of the letters that have been leaked.</p>
<p>But many of the leaks out of the Vatican over the past two years have not been of personal letters to and from the pope, they've been out of the offices of the Vatican's secretary of state. There is not a chance that Gabriele could have access to them.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It would be as if the Obama's personal babysitter suddenly got access to files at the Pentagon. The butler may be guilty. And he may be the one chiefly responsible for the letters published later this month.</p>
<p>&nbsp;But it just isn't plausible that he is the only leaker. The most humiliating leaks have come from inside the curial offices, that is from another high-ranking Cardinal. Perhaps someone who could even become the next Pope.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of the article incorrectly referred to Carlo Vigana as an American, he is Italian.&nbsp;</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/something-is-really-fishy-about-the-arrest-of-the-popes-butler-2012-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p>